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There’s probably not much this blurb can do to prevent another generation of young adolescent girls from falling for the notion that some day their Prince Charming will come. So let’s just say that director Mark Rosman’s A Cinderella Story is a sweet, cleverly conceived modernization of the fairy tale. In today’s world in the San Fernando Valley, a cell phone stands in for the glass slipper, royalty is the high-school football players and cheerleaders, and the evil stepmother is Botoxed to the max. Teen powerhouse Hilary Duff is the cute, studious girl who’s mostly ignored, sometimes mocked, by the in-crowd. And she commands even more sympathy for playing pretty much the same character as her arch-rival Lindsay Lohan does in Mean Girls but in a movie not likely destined for as much adult respect. The whole thing (most glaringly, the popular bitch and her two underlings) is Mean Girls lite, a sanitized peek for 12-year-olds into the often cruel world not far around the corner. And it’s the first Cinderella story that’s made me feel bad for the "evil" stepsisters. (97 minutes)
BY MARK BAZER
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